ASSAULT on AMERICA: a Decade of Petroleum Company Disaster, Pollution, and Profit
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ASSAULT ON AMERICA: A Decade of Petroleum Company Disaster, Pollution, and Profit NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION 2 0 1 0 United States Coast Guard Coast States United Tom Gill Gill Tom CONFRONTING GLOBALReport WARMING introduction The BP catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, with its tragic loss of life and devastating impact on the Gulf Coast economy, has brought the risk and high cost of oil development to the public’s attention. Predictably a round of oil industry executives have testified before Congress offering countless apologies and empty assurances that such an incident will never happen again. The oil industry is running ads asserting that this is an exceptional ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ event for an otherwise safe and responsible industry. But this is the fourth major oil spill in 33 years in North America after the following: in 1977, Hawaiian Patriot spewed over 30 million gallons of oil 300 miles off the coast of Hawaii; in the Gulf of Mexico, Ixtoc 1 spilled over 140 million gallons of oil in 1979; and Exxon Valdez was responsible for dumping over 11 million gallons of oil into the Prince William Sound of Alaska in 1989. Major oil spills are really only a small part of the real story. From 2000 to 2010, the oil and gas industry accounted for hundreds of deaths, explosions, fires, seeps, and spills as well as habitat and wildlife destruction in the United States. These disasters demonstrate a pattern of feeding America’s addiction to oil, leaving in their wake sacrifice zones that affect communities, local economies, and our landscapes. The BP Deepwater Horizon event is the largest and potentially most devastating environmental disaster the oil and gas industry has yet to foist on Americans. However, the frequency and recurrence of these events bears closer scrutiny. Incidents occur on a monthly and, sometimes, daily basis across the country but sadly only a portion of these make the front page or evening news. Shutterstock Images, www.shutterstock.com Images, Shutterstock This report provides a sampling of the oil and gas industry’s performance over the past 10 years —– the first decade of the new millennium. These ‘lowlights’ and examples from each year shed light on how the oil and gas industry has continued to show negligence and experience accidents all over the country. While not exhaustive, the listing offers a cross-section of spills, leaks, fires, explosions, toxic emissions, water pollution, and more that occurred in the last decade —– the post- Exxon Valdez era, the post- Oil Pollution Act of 1990 era, when the industry said “we’ve got it under control.” Page 2 QUICK & DIRTY FACTS THE TOP 10 STATES FOR PIPELINE ACCIDENTS I PROFITS: While most of the world was hit Rank State Significant Incidents Fatalities Injuries hard by the economic downturn, the top 10 petroleum refining companies in the 1 Texas 523 15 60 world reported $2.8 trillion in revenue 2 Louisiana 223 6 18 and $150 billion in profit during 2009.i 3 California 177 9 24 I LOBBYING: With their stockpile of cash, 4 Kansas 117 3 18 oil and gas companies have spent $38 5 Illinois 115 2 28 million lobbying Congress in 2010 so that they can continue business as usual: 6 Pennsylvania 114 10 33 Making billions of dollars, cutting back on 7 Oklahoma 113 38 safety and pollution standards, and 8 Ohio 74 6 12 blocking the gateway for a new, clean energy economy. ConocoPhillips, BP, 9 Michigan 61 5 26 Exxon Mobil, Chevron Corp, and Royal 10 New Mexico 58 15 17 Dutch Shell have contributed $18.74 million of that total.ii The American Petroleum Institute, the trade association that represents oil and gas The negative consequences for our iii iv industries, spent $7.3 million in 2009 and $3.6 million so far in 2010 health, our land, our climate and our in lobbying expenditures. Direct political contributions from the oil and children’s future are too great to gas industry to members of Congress have accounted for another continue to depend on oil to power our v $13.9 million already this year. economy. Now is the time to enact laws that favor and encourage safe and clean I OFFSHORE: The U.S. Mineral Management Service (now Bureau of energy development and remove Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement) determined federal subsidies and tax advantages for that 1,443 incidents occurred in the Outer Continental Shelf waters oil and gas development. Now is the from 2001 – 2007. Of these incidents, 41 fatalities, 302 injuries, 476 time to increase mitigation fees. Now is vi fires, and 356 pollution events were reported. the time to create an oil and gas disaster fund paid for by industry. I ONSHORE: From 2000 – 2009, pipeline accidents accounted for Now is the time to determine 2,554 significant incidents, 161 fatalities, and 576 injuries in the environmentally sensitive areas that United States.vii should be permanently off limits to oil and gas development. See these incidents mapped across the U.S. on pages 16 - 17 And now is the time to cap global warming pollution from all oil and gas production —– including every aspect of the extraction and refining processes This was supposed to be the era of groundwater or beneath neighboring where methane, carbon dioxide, and “never again,” the refrain often heard communities. Yet we have had all of that other global warming gases are following a major tanker spill, refinery and more in the last decade. released into the air every day. explosion, or pipeline leak. We were told The stories that follow show that The BP Deepwater Horizon spill is that spill prevention plans, better safety today’s oil and gas industry threatens truly a tragedy of our time. It should be procedures, and improved technology, Americans in countless ways. This used to take a closer and more would help eliminate spills, fires, industry continues to knowingly comprehensive look at the full and explosions, leaks and seeps. Yes, this endanger its own workers, the continuing costs that the oil and gas was supposed to be the era of no more environment, wildlife, and our industry continues to impose on society leaky river barges, no more oil refinery communities in states across the nation. with its pollution, environmental smog, no more worker deaths and The total cost of the status quo —– in degradation, habitat destruction, injuries, no more well blow-outs, and no lives lost and health risks as well as wildlife loss, worker and community more underground tank farm plumes or social and environmental degradation —– endangerment, health effects gas station oil seepage into is far too high. consequences, and loss of life. Page 3 “Campers Killed in Blast” Gas Pipeline: New Mexico exploded beneath their campsite, next to her husband, Royle, aged 20. shooting an enormous fireball 500 Amy told medics that she wanted to feet into the air, visible for miles. The see her babies. Her husband raised massive explosion was so powerful his head, looked sadly into her eyes, that it registered with seismic and told her that they were all dead. monitoring instruments some Back at the explosion site, firefighters distance away. The fire following the later found the bodies of three young explosion burned for nearly an hour children with the residue of a playpen before firefighters could reach the melted all around them. The explosion fire and put it under control. and raging fire would eventually take Firefighters came from several the lives of all 12 of the campers. nearby towns including Carlsbad, The National Transportation Safety Otis, Joel, and Loving in order to fight Board later determined that the the massive blaze. A few fire trucks probable cause of the pipeline moved within a half-mile of the fire explosion and fire was “a significant but, even at that distance, the fire reduction in pipe wall thickness due raged so strongly that the trucks had to severe internal corrosion.” This to retreat. “We saw it was going to severe corrosion occurred, according melt the paint off our trucks,”1 said to the NTSB, because El Paso Natural one firefighter. Upon arriving at the Gas Company’s corrosion control gasline explosion, the firefighters program “failed to prevent, detect, or were initially unaware that campers control” internal corrosion within the had been at the site. After the gas pipeline. Contributing to the accident, iStockphoto, www.istockphoto.com iStockphoto, from the pipeline was turned off and said the NTSB, were “ineffective Federal pre-accident The fire raged so strongly that the trucks had to inspections...that did not identify deficiencies in the company’s internal “retreat. ‘We saw it was going to melt the paint off corrosion control program.”2 In other words, negligence and regulatory our trucks.’ non-compliance were the root cause of this horrific accident. The Heady, Smith and” Sumler families the flames were tamed, the In the U.S. today, there are nearly (seven adults, three children, and two firefighters thought they were ready 500,000 miles of oil and gas infants) headed out to Carlsbad, New to go home after extinguishing a few transmission pipelines that crisscross Mexico for some weekend camping on scattered grass fires. But that’s when the country. These lines often carry the evening of Friday August 18th, they heard the screams from the hazardous materials with the 2000. When they arrived at their direction of the river. potential to cause public injury and camping area along the Pecos River Hearing the eerie cries for help, environmental damage in rural and they unknowingly chose a spot where firefighters and emergency crews ran urban areas.